


Lease

by MiteyMidget



Series: Reunion 'verse [8]
Category: Drake & Josh
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 20:14:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10906674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiteyMidget/pseuds/MiteyMidget
Summary: AU, futurefic. When the lease on his loft comes up for renewal Drake starts to consider a big change.





	Lease

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written early 2009, but I used to write longhand and managed to lose a large chunk of the middle of this fic. I was cleaning recently and found the loose notebook paper in the middle of a CD wallet. Why did I put it there? I have no idea. No beta for this part of the fic, just a quick and dirty last minute edit by yours truly.

In the entire time they’ve been dating, just short of a year, Josh has been to Drake’s condo a grand total of three times. It’s mostly because Josh’s schedule with the school makes it difficult to leave San Diego for a decent stretch of time, but Drake suspects, too, that Josh just isn’t as comfortable in the impersonal confines of Drake’s professionally decorated loft with it’s sharp lines and wide, empty spaces. Really, Drake’s more comfortable at Josh’s cozy apartment too.

Which is why, when the lease comes up, Drake hesitates over signing the contract for another year. He puts property management off, saying he needs a couple days to think about it, and packs a bag and heads back to San Diego.

He lets himself into Josh’s apartment, toeing his shoes off at the door. It’s true. He feels more at home here than he does at his own place, for all that he still spends more time in Los Angeles. Drake had liked the place when he’d first moved in. Liked how hip it was, liked the view of the city from his window and the simple layout. There’s a very stark difference between that and the beige walls and worn carpets of Josh’s apartment. 

Even alone here, with Josh still working, Drake feels more at home. Sure, he feels the urge to burn some of the second hand furniture Josh has had since college, but it’s like when he walks through the door everything just kind of melts away and he’s able to shed everything else and become just Drake for a little while. His place in L.A. is more about keeping up the image, and though he’d thought the place was pretty cool when he found it three years ago he thinks maybe he’s grown out of it.

That leaves him with one question. What does he do about it?

Well, obviously he doesn’t have to renew the lease, but he’s thinking about after that. He can’t move out here. There’s a lot of things he’s willing to do for Josh, but a two hour commute every day in that kind of traffic is not one of them. He might be able to find something in the middle, but even that might be pushing it. Most nights he’s lucky to shuffle in just before midnight.

With a sigh, Drake grabs a soda from the fridge and walks back out to the living room and drops onto Josh’s couch. This whole thing would be so much easier if he had his own private studio, where he could just record whenever he wanted, but he’s just not quite there yet with his career. And it’s never been an issue until now. Being stuck in L.A. or travelling across the country in a tour bus. Publicity shoots wherever the label wants him. Drake loves it, but he’s never had to worry about having someone to come home to, someone that might get sick of the fly-by part of the relationship.

He doesn’t think he’d give it up for Josh, no more than he thinks Josh would actually give up teaching for Drake, but it would hurt like hell if it ever came down to that. And it’s thoughts like that that make Drake wish Josh kept something a little stronger than soda in his fridge.

Drake lets his head fall back against the sofa, frowns up at the ceiling like it contains all the answers of the universe.  
Josh gets home not long after that. Drake hears the key in the lock and the muttered sound of confusion as Josh realises he’s just relocked his door. When he finally gets in the door Josh must spot his shoes, because he calls “Drake?” all excited-like.

“In the living room,” Drake calls back, moving his feet off the coffee table before Josh spots them. The last thing he wants to do is start this weekend with a lecture. 

Josh finally slips into the room and Drake notices he’s gotten a haircut in the past couple weeks, trimmed off much of the curl. His shirt and tie are a rumpled mess and there’s a smudge of chalk on his pants. He looks every bit the teacher he is. More importantly he looks happy, grinning widely as he strides across the room to lean down and pull Drake into a kiss. 

It’s slow and sweet and so much more than anything Drake has ever experienced before with anyone else. To have this every day would be bliss.

“You didn’t call ahead to tell me you were coming,” Josh murmurs against his ears when they finally part.

Drake grins into Josh’s hair. It’s soft and thick and just a little bristly from the recent trim. “I like to surprise you.” And then he pulls Josh down into his lap, startling a squawk out of the other man as he nearly over-balances. “Kind of like that.”

Josh settles down, knees on either side of Drake’s thighs and from this angle he looks even taller. “Some surprises are nice,” he admits with a begrudging tone, though the laughter in his eyes gives him away.

“Someday I’m going to jump out of a cake,” Drake tells him, already imagining what he would have to do to make it happen.

Josh shakes his head, bemused. “ That would be a surprise, but I don’t think we need a cake.”

“You don’t like cake?”

“I like cake just fine,” Josh tells him, and then he leans forward like he’s telling a secret. “I just like you more.”

And then they’re making out on the couch like a couple of horny teenagers, Drake gripping the back of Josh’s neck with one hand and fisting Josh’s shirt with the other. Josh is practically trying to crawl into his mouth, squirming just right in his lap. God. Drake should surprise him more often. 

After that he loses time, practically caught in a tsunami. It’s a blur of grasping hands and wet and greedy kisses. Drake’s hips lift in time to the pulse of Josh’s grinding, clutching at his waist for any anchor. When he comes back to himself he’s panting and sated and there’s an uncomfortable sticky mess in his jeans. Josh is a heavy, boneless weight sprawled over him, sweating forehead bent low as he tries to catch his own breath. 

Christ. The horny teenager comparison was probably a little too apt. The both of them just came in their pants. 

Drake shifts and grimaces as his jeans chafe. “Gross.”

Josh laughs a warm warm rumble that vibrates against Drake’s chest. “Maybe next time think twice about surprises.”

“Nah,” he drawls. “It was worth it. Now get off me. Afterglow’s over.”

“And they say romance is dead,” Josh deadpans, but he gets up with a grunt, frowning down at the mess in his own slacks. “I don’t think I can ever wear these pants again. That is a stain I am not explaining to my drycleaner.”

The mental image is enough to make Drake laugh aloud. Josh red-faced and embarrassed, trying to explain come stains in his pants to the matronly old woman at the the cleaners down the street.

“Tell the truth.” At the disbelieving look he receives in return, Drake continues. “That you’ve got a smokin’ boyfriend and couldn’t wait long enough to get your hands up.” He thrusts his hand out. “Help me up.”

Josh pulls him to his feet, but doesn't release his hand, just tugs him closer for a sweeter, more intimate kiss. Even just few minutes after his last orgasm and Drake can feel the arousal spark back to life. He lets the kiss drag on for only a few tender moments before pulling himself away.

“Shower,” he murmurs against Josh’s lips.

“Mm-hmm,” Josh agrees, and then they’re both moving towards the bathroom. 

After, when they’re both flushed and squeaky clean and wearing fresh clothes, Josh puts a frozen pizza in the oven, and they sit down to watch the Blues Brothers. Drake decides that it’s probably the best opportunity he’s going to get to bring up the thing he wants to talk about. He snuggles closer, stretching one arm out and around Josh’s shoulder. It’s a little awkward with someone taller than him, but Josh huddles closer, slumps into the loose embrace.

“So,” Drake begins, snuffling into damp black hair just a little bit. “The lease is up on my apartment pretty soon.”

“Are you going to renew it?” Josh asks without even bothering to look up.

Drake shrugs, trying for nonchalant, but probably overshooting by about a mile. “Was thinking about finding someplace new.”

At this Josh does look up, confused frown fixed on his face. “Someplace new? But Drake, you love that place. The first month we were dating you bragged about it.”

Drake huffs, kind of uncomfortable. “I do. It’s just… I like you more, right? I thought it might be nice to have somewhere closer to San Diego. Or somewhere you’d be more comfortable stay at.”

Josh Josh’s face goes all soft and he smiles big and wide and toothy. “Somewhere that’s ours, you mean.”

Okay, yeah. That’s kind of part of it, but does Josh have to make everything so sentimental? They’re not girls. Drake just shrugs again in response, unwilling to agree, but even more unwilling to disagree. 

Josh’s smile only widens impossibly, and he looks about a second from hugging the stuffing out of Drake. Instead, he drops an indulgent kiss on the end of Drake’s nose.

“That certainly makes my news a little easier to tell you,” he says.

“News?” Drake asks.

“Mmhmm,” Josh nods. “I wasn’t sure they’d want me, so I didn’t want to tell you before I found out. And I wasn’t sure if you would want me.”

“What?” Drake stares incredulously. “Considering everything we’ve gone though, I’d say it’s pretty obvious I want you.” He lets his expression go playful. “Not to mention our little couch performance earlier.”

Josh’s face flames and he has to clear his throat before coming back with a response. “I think I got that, yeah. There’s still a lot of space between wanting someone and wanting to be with someone.”

That’s even more confusing and kind of insulting. “You think I don’t want to be with you?”

“I’m explaining this all wrong.” Josh huffs a frustrated sigh, then turns to pin Drake dead on with his blue-blue eyes, all sweet and sincere like. “I sent my resume to a few schools in LA, but with the way this district’s school board reacted to us I wasn’t sure how well I’d be received. I didn’t want to get your hopes up.” He pauses, and then goes on to admit a little ashamedly, “I was worried you might not want me there.”

The news freezes him. Josh in LA. With Drake. In all of his considerations he’d never stopped to think that Josh might come to him. That was big. A bigger step than he’d been expecting to make. But hell, he knew people who moved in together after falling into bed just once. He and Josh have been dating just about a year now, so if anything they’re moving him of slow.

They’re going to be live-in boyfriends. For real.

“Drake?” Josh’s voice cuts through the giddy, half hysterical thoughts, and the slightly anxious lilt to his tone snaps Drake back to the present.

“We’re still going to pick something new, right?” Drake asks quickly. “You don’t want to move into my loft? Your apartment’s kind of grown on me. I was hoping you’d like something a little… cosier?”

This seems to calm Josh’s worry and he’s smiling again, pinching Drake’s cheek. “That’s sweet. I’m domesticating you.”

Drake scowls. He’s not even sure what that means, but it sounds mocking. “Shut up.”

Josh’s grin only widens. “Would you like me to get your pipe, dear? Maybe bring your slippers? After that we could-”

Whatever Josh is about to suggest is abruptly cut off by a throw pillow to the face. Drake giggles at the poleaxed expression and has enough sense of self-preservation to dive for cover. Just as he’s ducked himself behind the coffee table the cushion goes sailing over his head.

“That’s it Parker,” Josh growls, all low and rumbly. “You’re going down.”

The battle that follows is long and hard fought, each man too stubborn to give in to the other. It’s filled with laughter and heaving panting, the sound of feet and knees and elbows and even a skull thudding against the carpeted floor. In the end they call it a tie and collapse, side by side, on the floor, hands clasped tight, their heads tilted close. Drake’s grinning as he stares up at the ceiling and he know’s that Josh is looking just as goofy. 

In that moment Drake’s not sure he’s ever been so happy in his entire life. Not at his first gig, or getting his first record deal, or hearing one of his songs on the radio for the first time. Lying here sweaty and breathless tops anything he’s ever felt before because he knows suddenly that there’s going to be more of this. Not just on weekends or holidays, but every day. This is his. He gets to keep it.

**Author's Note:**

> And there marks the end of the Reunion 'verse.


End file.
